Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Our First Band Rehearsal!

As many of you know, Vern and I started a band called Jet City Crawl. We began writing and recording songs in July of 2009 and completed our first album in July of 2010. We have now been working on our second album, hopefully to be released in late 2011. Thus far, three new songs have been written and we have about five more in the pipelines. It's very exciting.

However, one of the drawbacks of our band is that there is no band per se. The majority of the instruments on our first album are played by Vern. Since he can't be a one-man-band, there was no hope, necessarily, of us performing live. I write most of the lyrics and I sing the songs; I occasionally come in on the harmonica, or melodica, or piano. But how can Vern play bass, drums, guitar, banjo, mandolin, horns, etc. live onstage? Well, it's just not possible.

But there is now hope for live Jet City Crawl gigs! John Hartman, from Vise Virsa, and Kris Hartman, also from Vise Virsa, are joining us: John on drums and Kris on guitar. Vern's friend, the awesome musician Jose Franco, is joining us on bass. Vern plays lead guitar, I sing (and will possibly contribute the odd piano, melodica and harmonica additions) and WHAMMO! We've got ourselves a full-fledged band! Yessirree, things are looking up.

We rehearse in our studio, Vskills Studio, located in Covina, CA and built by my awesome husband. It's pretty nice to be able to just walk out into the backyard and rehearse with all the great studio accoutrements. Great mics, great drums, great guitars and amps, and for recording, great pre-amps. It's a dream come true.

I am currently learning guitar. I have gotten a lot better and I hope to keep gaining knowledge in this arena. It's difficult. Multiply that by the fact that I'm in my 30's and am learning an entirely new instrument, and it gets pretty hairy. It's hard to be an adult and learn new things. We are so used to knowing things by now, that we forget what it's like to learn. But I'm learning anyway. It's hard, but it's worth it. I don't just want to be the "girl singer." I want to earn some respect as being a singer AND musician. We'll see how that pans out, but I have high hopes and high drive, so it will work out, I'm sure.

We rehearsed four songs on Sunday, the 1st: Back to Colorado, What You Make It, Lazy Stone, and Oh, California. For a first rehearsal, we did remarkably well. I'm looking forward to the next.

If you want to hear our first album, Colorfornia, or listen to our newest three songs, go here. Enjoy!